Eternal Rewards
Session 4: Truths about Eternal Life
I. Intro:
The purpose of this session is to give us a foundation that we have an eternity of life before us to be lived out to the fullest, that it is real, as real as our current life and even far more. We must understand that this “life” we are talking about is actual. When the Bible talks about life it’s not speaking of some intangible far off unreality that can’t be related to or defined. To talk about a life that goes on forever is to speak about real time, real life with real activities, it includes the tangible realities of life. The misconception that we have somehow bought into is that upon our entrance into the Eternal Kingdom we all just adopt a carbon copy lifestyle where all of us do the exact same thing with nonstop worship and singing, where we continue on in this manner for the rest of eternity. We tell ourselves that it’s going to be good (because that’s what we’ve been taught), but we don’t really know why it’s good and secretly we think that our life is over (for this reason there is much out of place at our funerals). We don’t become praisebots with programmed responses limited to only one place to do only one thing; we have real lives with real choices and real things to do. This makes eternal life an entirely different thing.
“Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope (1Th. 4:13).”
II. The Promise of Eternal Life:
A. Prophesied From the Beginning:
From the time of the first people the discussion of eternal life was on the table. This is because God created us to be with Him in paradise, we were created to live in close relationship with Him and to do so forever. After sin entered Adam and Eve the issue of eternal life became an issue because to live with God forever required purity that had been lost in the garden. Now provision would have to be made to reclaim mankind’s purity so that they could one day eat of the tree of life and so never die.
“And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever (Ge. 3:22).”
B. The Many Promises of Eternal Life:
Since that first recorded statement in Genesis the Word of God then continually attested to the reality of eternal life (Ps. 133:3; Mt. 19:29, 25:46; Jn. 3:15-16, 36, 4:14, 5:24, 6:27, 47, 51, 58, 12:50, 17:2-3; Ro. 6:23; 1Jn. 2:17, 5:11; Ju. 1:21).
C. We Know the Way to Eternal Life:
1. Though Jesus Only:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (Jn. 3:16).”
“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (Jn. 14:6)”
2. By Obedience to Jesus:
Those that know Jesus must follow His commands (Jn. 10:27-28, 12:25; Ro. 2:7; Ga. 6:8; 1Ti. 6:12; 1Jn. 2:3-6).
“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand (Jn. 10:27-28).”
“The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life (Jn. 12:25).”
“We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did (1Jn. 2:3-6).”
3. Humility is required:
“to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd. You save the humble but bring low those whose eyes are haughty (Ps. 18:26-27).”
“whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, him will I not endure. My eyes will be on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me (Ps. 101:5-6).”
“All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (1Pe. 5:5).”
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise (Ps. 51:17).”
“Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud (Pr. 16:18-19).”
“This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word (Is. 66:2).”
“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up (Jm. 4:10).”
III. Life Continues on Forever:
A. Proof # 1: The Sun and Moon
1. The Sun marks out seasons:
We can be confident in this because God said that He created the sun and the moon to mark days, seasons and years.
“And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night (Ge. 1:14-16).”
“who spread out the earth upon the waters…who made the great lights…the sun to govern the day…the moon and stars to govern the night (Ps. 136:6-9)...”
“The moon marks off the seasons, and the sun knows when to go down (Ps. 104:19).”
2. The Sun will endure forever:
It is an important fact that the Lord told us the Sun and the Moon will never cease to exist. They will continue on forever.
“He will endure as long as the sun, as long as the moon, through all generations (Ps. 72:5).”
“Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness—and I will not lie to David— that his line will continue forever and his throne endure before me like the sun; it will be established forever like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky (Ps. 89:35-37).”
3. Conclusions about the Sun & Moon:
Since the Sun and Moon will exist forever and they were put in place so measure off time for us this means that there will be a real measureable time dimension forever. Days have beginning and end points, as do months and years. This is an important detail because it tells us that forever there is a value placed on defining time. Time will matter and be measureable forever.
B. Proof # 2: Eternal Geography
1. To state it frankly; the scriptures tell us clearly that this Earth will endure eternally.
“He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth that he established forever (Ps. 78:69).”
“He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved (Ps. 104:5).”
2. There are many prophecies about cities or regions continuing on forever (Israel- Ps. 37:29, 105:10-11, 125:1-2; 1Ch. 23:25, 28:8; Is. 60:21; Ez. 37:25; Jo. 3:20; (Babylon- Is. 13:20, Je. 25:12, 50:49, 51:26, 37, 62; Ez. 35:9; Tyre- Ez. 26:14, 21; Moab- Zph. 2:9; Ammon- Zph. 2:9; Edom- Is. 34:9-11; Ez. 35:9; Je. 49:13, 17-18; Ez. 35:9; Jo. 3:19; Ob. 1:9-10; Ma. 1:3-5; Hazor- Je. 49:33; Others- Is. 25:2).
“They will live in the land I gave to my servant Jacob, the land where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children will live there forever, and David my servant will be their prince forever (Ez. 37:25).”
C. Proof # 3: Christ’ Government Grows Forever
Though it is a concrete teaching about the Millennium, many of us don’t give much thought to the reality that Christ is coming back to the Earth to establish a government. Yes, a government, as in political system with Christ as head.
1. This was very much what the Jews were expecting to happen (and still are) when the Messiah comes.
“After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself (Jn. 6:14-15).”
2. There is very little that is more tangible and real to our lives than the existence of governments in the Earth. Governments define much of the structure of life.
a. International policies
b. National boundaries
c. Civil laws
d. Currency
e. Cultural norms
f. Thousands of elements of daily life
3. The part about this that is pertinent to our discussion is that we are told Jesus’ government will never stop growing and getting better. This means that all the related elements of life have eternal longevity.
“And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end (Is. 9:6-7).”
D. Proof # 4: We Will Have Houses Treasures in Heaven
This is a seriously exciting reality. We will spend a good portion of a future session on this point so at this time we will leave it at that. But be certain, houses and treasures means real life.
E. Getting a Vision for this Eternity:
Don’t you want your life to be prosperous? We spend a great amount of energy in this life trying to avoid sickness so as to be physically able; we invest in our relationships so that we can have close friends and strong marriages, we work hard at our jobs so that we can produce finances for our economic security, and we do many other such things to improve our quality of life. We do these things because we want the best life possible for us; to be able to enjoy the time we have been given. After all, who wants to be sick, friendless and broke? But for some reason we have a heart disconnect when it comes to improving our lives in the age to come, it is as though we don’t really believe that we will have a life at all. We need to get a vision in this life for real living tomorrow; it’s called forever and it’s real.
1. Get a vision to be rich forever.
2. Get a vision to be close to Jesus in the Age to come.
3. Get a vision to have an awesome and powerful resurrected body.
4. Get a vision to have great relationships all over Heaven.
IV. It is Possible to Receive & Then Loose Eternal Life:
This may be a controversial concept but there is no dispute within the scriptures. Our human sentiments have played heavily in the presentation of the Gospel that states that once a person has “repented,” or “come to Christ,” or has “been saved,” or whatever other term may be used to describe having a real relationship with the living God that they are then somehow exempt from everything else that the Bible has to say about salvation. Many assumptions about eternity have been called doctrine; and these assumptions may even be formed using various scripture passages but if they are in contradiction to what scripture clearly teaches then they are false ideas. We cant make doctrine based off assumptions, instead we should allow the teachings of the Bible to inform us about the validity of our ideas. For instance, if you do a word study on the words “saved” (iusho) & “salvation” (ishuoth) you will find that a common use references God’s delivering an individual or group from physical harm, devastation or captivity. It is a benefit described for those who are in current covenantal relationship with Jehovah and there are in fact instances of those receiving salvation in one instance and then the next time an opposing army comes to destroy them they are delivered over to their enemies because they had broken covenant with God.
A. Eternal Existence is a Universal Reality:
Everyone who has ever been conceived will exist forever; in some form and place we will all continue to live without end. This is the concept of eternity, that our lives continue after death, that life is real, and the real us will continue on indefinitely.
1. Some continue on in everlasting life in God’s Kingdom.
“But God will redeem my life from the grave; he will surely take me to himself (Ps. 49:15).”
2. Some continue on in everlasting contempt in the fires of Hell.
“Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt (Da. 12:2).”
“The dead were judged according to what they had…and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done…If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire (Re. 20:12-15).”
“But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur (Re. 21:8)”
B. Continually Seeking:
The Bible makes it clear that eternal life is only for those who begin the journey of saying “yes” to Christ and then continue on in that way, seeking God until the end. Those who do so will inherit eternal life.
“Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling (Php. 2:12).”
1. Eternal life is for those who remain in Him:
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever…Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever (Jn. 6:51-58).”